Badminton: Mew Choo is determined to get back to full fitness

KUALA LUMPUR: Shuttler Wong Mew Choo is going through a most difficult period of her badminton career as recurrent injuries continue to haunt her.

But the national number one does not intend to throw in the towel and will work on regaining full fitness. Mew Choo will skip the National Grand Prix Finals in Alor Star next week to allow her injuries to heal.

Mew Choo is not only carrying knee injuries but also has pain in her heels.

“I intend to resume stem cell injection treatment on my knees. I stopped doing it because of my preparation for the Beijing Olympics as I needed to undergo intensive training,” she said yesterday.

“But now that the season is ending and I did not qualify for the Super Series Masters Finals, I want to use this period to undergo treatment. It’s better for me to skip the National Grand Prix Finals as well.”

The 25-year-old has struggled to regain her form since making the country proud with her breakthrough win in the China Open last year.

If Mew Choo were to start the stem cell treatment, she will need to go for inoculations on a frequency depending on her recovery rate.

Mew Choo has suffered a string of early round exits in Super Series tournaments and only had semi-final appearances in the Malaysia and Singapore Opens to show for this year.

“I am frustrated with my results and at times, I also doubt myself. How can I be dishing out rubbish like these? I felt sorry for the people who have placed hopes in me,” she said.

“Although I reached the last eight in the Olympics (last August), I felt empty inside because I did not achieve my target to win a medal. Injuries prevented me from playing to my full ability in the Beijing Games.”

Mew Choo appreciates the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) concern over her plight.

“They want to help adjust my training programme to make it easier on me. It’s good as my current problem is how to recover my fitness,” she said.

“Because of my injuries, I am missing my touch and stumbling in footwork. It does not help that I have to go for back-to-back tournaments to defend my world rankings.

“And when I am injured, it’s a tall order for me to cope. Sometimes, it hurts until I have to stop training.

“But as long as there are options for me to get myself fit again, I will continue playing unless I am told I can no longer carry on.”

Mew Choo is currently ranked 10th in the world and she missed out on the Super Series Masters Finals in Kota Kinabalu from Dec 18-21 by just one rung — finishing the season in ninth place.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 5:41 PM. Filed under News, Wong Mew Choo . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0